Biologists work to preserve endangered plant only found in Texas

Biologists and volunteers have set out to reintroduce an endangered plant that only exists in East Texas.

Last week along a slope in the woods near Spurger, about 50 miles north of Beaumont, the Texas trailing phlox was replanted to its native habitat.

Longleaf pine clusters in Hardin, Polk and Tyler counties are the only places the plant exists in the world, said Wendy Ledbetter, Southeast Texas project director with the Nature Conservancy of Texas.

"Both of these species need the same kind of management, so it fits really nicely," she said of the piney planting site.

The plant was put on the federal endangered list in 1993. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recovery plan calls for boosting the plant's population enough to eventually "de-list" the phlox, Ledbetter said.

The trailing phlox grows low to the ground, offers pink blossoms in spring and is choosy about its environment. It grows best in upland areas with abundant sunshine such as pine savannas, where natural fires periodically burn out any competing species such as thicker, shadier plants.

"In other words, to keep this system going, it needs fire to come through it on a regular basis," said Big Thicket National Preserve biologist Lisa Jameson.

But as the area's timber was harvested and development increased, fires decreased. Thick shrubs invaded old pine savannas, and trailing phlox populations declined.

At Stephen F. Austin State University, cuttings have been taken from cultivated sprouts grown at the school's Pineywoods Native Plant Center and planted in scattered sites across the Big Thicket.

The program has enjoyed some success. In one area, the phlox has adapted well and multiplied its population 13 times, Jameson said.

The group will monitor last week's plantings and pay close attention after a prescribed controlled burn of the area scheduled for 2009, Ledbetter said.